Loving the Small Things

Grandpa Lymon and June Bug
Grandpa Lymon ran a store because he loved to socialize with folks.

As you may know I have a book coming out this winter.  The Adventures of June Bug Johnson is the result of many years of hearing, collecting, and embellishing funny stories.  Writing this book was a labor of fun, the editing and other things that followed were more a labor of love.

Emotionally, I feel like this book ought to be the center of literary universe; it is almost like seeing your child do well.  Other writers may feel differently, but I have become deeply invested in these stories.  In my mind I know this book is no Gone With the Wind, Great Expectations, or That Hideous Strength but that doesn’t change the way I feel.

The problem is that as a no-name author of a collection of funny stories the well-read world of fine literature is not beating my door down asking for interviews, movie rights or book signings.  I would love to have Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million sign me to a book tour that would guarantee large turnouts at every store.  So far, I have not been able to get past their phone tree and talk to a live person.

I am, however, booking tours, and so far there are no events scheduled at major players in the book industry.  For example, my first retail outlet event is at a gift shop/drug store in a little town in a rural county.  This county is so rural there is only one traffic light in the whole county.  This store still delivers drop orders, the pharmacist calls customers by their first name, the clerk at the cash register chats with folks about their kids, grand kids, and great grand kids.  It is the kind of place where the heart is larger than the numbers.

While I would certainly like to book an event that would sell 500 copies, I think I will enjoy a casual, easygoing afternoon in a small town, drug store more.  This is a book about stories, with one of the central characters being a storekeeper name Grandpa Lymon (pronounced Lemon) who runs a small community store.  It is about being a part of a caring community and the relationship that guide us through life. 

From chapter one about the worst Klan rally ever:

Lymon felt that the real value of a store was the friendship between the customer and the shopkeeper.  He would treat a man with a $75 order no different than a child buying a penny candy, except that he would occasionally give the candy away.    Lymon loved people and the general store was just a way to be around people.  When taking an order he would let folks talk as long as they needed; both by disposition and habit, he did not rush.  Among the shelves of canned meats, chewing tobacco, string, pistol and rifle cartridges, the one thing folks came for most was the friendship. 

I believe Grandpa Lymon would be right proud that I am launching this book tour at a store in a small community where people are what matter most.  I may end up doing a book signing at a major outlet, but the chances of making a long-term friend  are much better in a small store than in a book signing frenzy.  So, I am going to make a point of loving the small things.

If you want to schedule a book signing for you event large or small email me dirently or go to the book’s website www.JuneBugJohnson.com, look around, and drop me a note.

Prayer and Faith before and after Irma.

In Luke 17:11-19, we find a Bible story staple.  It is the stuff you learned in Sunday School back when that was a thing.  But like most Bible stories it is much deeper than we realize with a casual reading.  It is the story of 10 lepers who meet Jesus as He is going to Jerusalem.  As Jesus enters their village they cry out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”  

They had heard of the healings of Jesus no doubt from the comings and goings of the villagers.  As Jesus approached, word would have spread that the great miracle worker of Galilee was coming their way.

Three points need to come first.  First, they all had enough faith to position themselves in such a way as to meet him, even if it was at a distance.  Second, they all had enough faith to ask for mercy.  Mercy means to take action based on sympathy or pity.  It is the word that describes action to alleviate the suffering caused by life in a sinful world.  Third, they all had faith enough to, at the command of Jesus, take off to find a priest that could declare them clean.    Clearly all of the lepers had faith enough to receive God’s mercy for their need.  But only one, when he saw that the cure was affected, returned to give thanks and glory to God. 

There is a level of faith that can ask for God’s help in the time of the crisis.  When the hurricane is bearing down and we can see the trouble we can have enough faith to say, “God help me”.  God, to quote the Anglican liturgy, “whose property is always to have mercy” often grants us help and rescue.  We often live at this level of faith, never considering that there is a deeper kind of faith.  Sadly, many preachers today proclaim this level of faith as if this is all there is to faith, and never talk or teach about a faith that is much deeper.  God has rescued us and we feel that that is enough and we are content.  In one very shallow way it may be enough. 

But that kind of faith is like drinking warm water out of a garden hose.  For a person in danger of dying of dehydration warm water from a water hose is pretty wonderful.   But when we are comfortable, the AC is running, and the hurricane has passed we don’t really need faith, unless it is to be more comfortable, have a cooler AC and need perfect weather for our weekend.  Faith that God will rescue me from a storm and take care of me in a crisis is a faith that I will only practice when I have a want or a need.  It is not a very practical faith except in the storm.

One of the lepers had a different kind of faith.  It was the faith that was deeper, richer, and stronger.  It was a faith that returned to give glory to God.  Nine men had enough faith to go and enjoy the blessings God had given them.  One had the faith of submission, love, and relationship.  Nine men went away healed, one man stayed in the presence of God.  Nine men had their bodies changed; one man had a change of everything. 

As Irma was bearing down on Florida last week multitudes of people were praying.  They were asking God, “Whose property is always to have mercy” to rescue them, their loved ones, or even strangers.  I believe those prayers were answered.  But now that the storm is passed, now that the AC is humming in the background do we worship God?  And what about those people for whom God’s answer to their prayers of rescue was, “No, you must walk through this suffering.”  That is the great thing about this deeper kind of faith.  The shallow faith is shattered if the rescue doesn’t come.  If the storms destroy, the cancer kills, the condition is unrelenting, the relationship is never restored then their faith is wrecked.  But the deeper faith will survive.

Lazarus died again; Mary and Martha stood at the tomb and cried again.  This time there was no rescue, this time Jesus didn’t show up four days later and do His thing.  But this time they didn’t need it; they had moved to a deeper faith.  

There will be another hurricane that will pound the coast.  The names have already been picked out.  Maybe it will be hurricane Debby, Gordon, Isaac, Leslie or Oscar.  In 2019, one of the names picked out is Hurricane Wendy (I think that is in bad taste).  If not a hurricane there will be a crisis from which there is no earthly rescue.  When that happens will we have the deeper faith that worships?  Or will ours be a faith that only whines because we didn’t get what we wanted when we wanted it?

Update from the Path of Hurricane Irma

I often wondered what the inside of a hurricane I wall looks like.  I may find out.

I generally write my blog and set up my newsletter late on Sunday night or early Monday morning.  However, Irma has convinced me that I should do it early and be ready to deal with wind and rain on Monday if it is needed.  The attached map is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) prediction for Irma at bedtime on Friday night.   It is an educated guess.

The folks at NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC) are the smartest, brightest and most dedicated people in the world when it comes to tropical cyclone prediction.  They have tens of millions of dollars invested in metrological equipment that ranges from sea level to miles above the atmosphere.  They have combined hundreds or even thousands of years of experience and most likely a good gut instinct about storms.

Nevertheless, every 6 hours they update their models, which is a way of saying they take a new, educated guess and generally change their predictions.  Where once Irma was expected to skirt the east coast of FL and make a beeline toward Charlotte,  more recent models have it going right of the peninsula of FL, over my house and making a run at Nashville.

Please do not think I am being critical of NOAA NHC.  They work under extreme conditions and under incredible pressure.  They have been a great help to me.  But some things can never be learned.  The best data in the world, the best education in the world, the nearly unlimited resources, and all the heroic efforts of the best minds can not give you certainty about where a storm is going. 

In Luke 10:21 it says, “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.’”

All the data in the world will not enable our minds to comprehend the Father.  The words wise and intelligent are words that generally carry a very positive meaning in the Bible.  Wise and intelligent will always trump foolish and dumb.  Anti-intellectualism is not something we ought to pursue.  John Wesley once received a note that said, “The Lord has told me to tell you that He doesn’t need your book-learning, your Greek, and your Hebrew.”  Wesley answered, “Thank you, sir. Your letter was superfluous; however, as I already knew the Lord has no need for my ‘book-learning,’ as you put it. However—although the Lord has not directed me to say so—on my own responsibility I would like to say to you that the Lord does not need your ignorance, either.”

Study is vital to our life, work and ministry but there are limits to what intellectual exercises can accomplish.  We may be able to know about Him.  But the knowing Him is the result of grace and love not data.  Data + Research will never produce intimacy with the Father.  In some way God is delighted in our knowing Him not from the mind, but in the heart; something you can’t learn, but gain by grace.

Latest prediction:  Irma will weaken and miss my house by 40 miles.  Anyone have suggestions of what to do with 40 gallons of stored water?

Thanks for Your Help

Lazy Days in a Pick-up Swimming Pool

Thanks for your help with the Adventures of June Bug Johnson.  Some weeks ago I related that I was getting my first book published.  I asked for help in selecting a general look for the front cover.  You can see the results of our collaboration to the right.  On another occasion I asked for your thoughts on what I should put on the back cover.    I wanted to thank all of you who offered insight, suggestions, and thoughts on both subjects.

Recently, my publisher Crosslink Publishing, www.crosslinkpublishing.com, sent me the final design for the book cover and the text of the back cover.  I am so excited that I am now using the book cover as the background on my phone and screen saver on my laptop; they also remind me of the 1,000 things I need to do to get ready for the release.

I wanted to send you this so that you can see how your suggestions helped me.   

Back Cover:

Take a laugh-filled, nostalgic trip to a place where we see the hopeful and dynamic power of common sense, also known as wisdom. 

Life lessons abound such as, “Jesus won’t take back your baptism” because you did something bad or that sometimes the right thing to do is to square off with a bully and take whatever comes.  Learn how a boy named after an insect could marry the prettiest girl in the county or how a drunken rat, a hoot owl, and a revival meeting converged to redirect a misguided youth’s life.  From a hog being stuck in a tree, to the painful lesson of what happens when you cuss a teacher, these and other stories, remind us that wisdom is within our grasp.

In a world that seems to have completely lost its mind, this book is able to combine the wisdom of the ages with true, though somewhat embellished, stories and show us the timeless truth that wisdom is practical and Proverbs are fun. 

When you live in the shadow of the Proverbs, life can be a pretty sweet place.  So, grab a glass of sweet tea or lemonade, relax in the shade of your favorite tree and enjoy learning wisdom along with June Bug.  

What people are saying about the Adventures of June Bug Johnson:

·      It is a great addition to any homeschooler's collection.

·      I look forward to reading and rereading this to my children for years to come.

·     Much like the writings of Annie Dillard…

·     With a wit akin to Dave Barry, a tone that matches the late Lewis Grizzard, and wisdom similar to Reverend Will B. Dunn…

·     You'll laugh with a purpose as you meet colorful characters…